Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2021

Ricciardo ‘feels better’ over role in Bottas crash after seeing video

2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Daniel Ricciardo realised his first-corner misjudgement which sent Valtteri Bottas into a spin at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix wasn’t as bad as he initially feared after watching a replay of the collision.

The McLaren driver sent Bottas into a spin when they touched at the apex of turn one. Ricciardo locked his right-front wheel before the pair made contact.

Both drivers had to pit and fell to the rear of the field. Ricciardo said he spent the rest of the race believing he had hit Bottas while his wheel was still locked.

“It was a pretty sad 70-odd laps because obviously when you have to pit on lap one you know that you need to get pretty lucky for the race to come back in your favour,” he explained after the race.

“I hadn’t seen a replay up until maybe a minute ago. My memory of turn one was I had a very good start and it was looking pretty good.

“I went to the inside of Perez. I do remember locking at one point and, replaying it in my head over the next 70 laps, I thought I locked and went up into Valtteri.”

Ricciardo said he was “kicking myself” until he watched a video replay of the collision. “It looked like I locked in the straight-line phase and then actually recovered before turning in, and it looked like there was just not enough room.

Poll: Should Ricciardo have been penalised for first-lap collision with Bottas?
“Valtteri came across, probably expecting him to have a bit of clear track and then there was Perez and me. So I don’t really blame Valtteri.

“Obviously, I’m the one that hit him. But honestly, looking at the replay, I just think it’s a first-lap incident and a matter of maybe me being optimistic. But I feel that one of those gaps, if you don’t go for it, someone else will and then you’re going to get the short end of the straw.”

The stewards did not investigate the incident and no penalties were issued. Ricciardo admitted he was still “disappointed” how his race had turned out. “I’m still going to be hard on myself and I never want to ruin my race on lap one.

“But if it’s possible to feel any better, I feel slightly better after seeing the replay. And it was actually quite a small hit. But we know these cars don’t take much to damage.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix articles

39 comments on “Ricciardo ‘feels better’ over role in Bottas crash after seeing video”

  1. No, Daniel, it was bad.

  2. If you look at the replays you can’t but agree with Daniel. But if you’re stuck in the idea that he would’ve never made the corner in the first place…then it’s going to be a never ending discussion.

    1. But if you’re stuck in the idea that he would’ve never made the corner in the first place

      That’s not the view I have, nor did I see others claim that.

      I opinion that if you’re coming from behind, then you cannot claim a corner. This is independent of if you did or didn’t lock-up arriving there, or of the maybe peculiar way the driver in front is taking that corner.

      1. I took another look at the comments under the other article on the collision and there was only one that suggested that he might have not made the corner. Others have been saying that he wasn’t in control, ramming or plowing into Bottas, but good to agree that wasn’t the case.

        As for ‘claiming the corner’ I agree you can’t just claim the corner being the one who’s attacking, but it’s pretty silly from Bottas to just steer into the gap he just let his team mate through, on the first lap in the first corner, assuming no one is there. I’m not saying that Bottas is the culprit here, I just think it’s a typical first lap incident where they both could’ve handled in a smarter way to avoid contact.

        1. Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
          8th November 2021, 18:05

          no matter how you cut it. It’s Ricciardo’s fault. He’s the trailing car and made contact with Bottas. Bottas has every right to that space as Ricciardo wasn’t even a long side. Its simply a racing incident that saw Ricciardo hit another car.

  3. I just dont understand how you can take out the pole-sitter from the race in T1 and not expect a penalty when its obvious that you’ve gone too deep. They have given penalties for a lot less this year. I am annoyed that the stewards are so inconsistent.

    1. @moe, I just don’t understand how you can start from p7 and be blocked by the polesitter in T1. Why was Bottas going so slow ? He should have been faster through the corner with his wider line, and had he stayed slightly wider Ricciardo would have been lionised for such a great start. Do I have to quote Senna?

      1. Take up basket-weaving or something. It’s obvious you don’t have a clue.

  4. I think after taking Max out previously, Bottas was always going to be more cautious on the brakes at the first corner. However, Ric would not know which Mercedes it was and of he had the car under control after the lock up then you can forgive him running into Bottas, given that he seemed to brake very early indeed. I guess the stewards thought the same.

    1. So what’s the difference between this and Hamilton/Verstappen at Silverstone, where Lewis picks up a penalty?

      1. That only verstappen had a big consequence from that, both here, so indeed, sometimes stewards look at consequences.

      2. I suppose the difference is that they don’t penalize anything that happens within the first few corners of a race. Race start is a kill-free zone, except if you do something extreme (like hitting more cars at full speed). It’s silly having that as the only criteria.

      3. Silverstone, where Lewis picks up a penalty

        The Lewis kind of penalty, where he loses nothing. Same as after overtaking the SC in the Spanish GP (a straight black flag in the books) where instead he took a totally ineffectual time penalty, long enough after the incident that it did not mean a loss of position.
        That’s absurd. Penalties should be dissuasive. If you are found guilty of cheating but win more from the cheat than you lose from the penalty, it only motivates you to cheat even more.

  5. Aww its nice of him not to blame Bottas.
    But Bottas was ahead of Dan all the time and was on the racing line. Dan meanwhile, was trying to sneak through the corner which was not his to begin with. A penalty for Dan

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      8th November 2021, 13:20

      Not a single other driver took the racing line through the first turn on the first lap. You are either on the outside and take the turn a bit wide or you’re on the inside and take a narrow line. If you try to take the usual racing line going from the outside of the track to the inside and back out, you’re asking for trouble. When Ricciardo was braking, he would have been ensuring he didn’t run into Hamilton and then suddenly Bottas appeared in front of him.

      1. Watch the replay again. The racing line is where you take a wide line and turn inside. That’s why P1 starts on the left side. If you’re speeding on the inside and trying to make a tight right, then most probably you’re gonna go wide and risk contact with other cars. Bottas was the nearest car ahead of Dan going into the corner. How could Dan not see him?

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          8th November 2021, 13:48

          He could see him but at the point he committed to the corner and brakes, Hamilton was still on the inside and Bottas was in the middle. He wouldn’t have expected Bottas to take that space on the apex of the corner. Bottas was entitled to do it but it was too late for Ricciardo to back out as he’d already braked late – any more pressure and he’d have locked up and taken more cars out.

          Ricciardo was a bit optimistic going into the corner and Bottas was a bit optimistic that he could take the line he did. Unfortunately both gambled on that part of the track being clear and it wasn’t.

  6. “After watching the replay I saw it was Bottas I hit so it does not matter”.

    1. Lol. Good one

      1. Dan, you should choose better whom to punt next time

  7. Late braker meets early braker, first lap incident, both sent to the back because of it…what’s to penalize if they were to investigate, is how I assume the stewards considered it.

  8. Loving how Senna’s absolutely cynical “going for a gap” story is regularly used by the drivers to justify their mistakes.

    1. @spoutnik Yeah true. I mean, going for a gap is racing for sure, but the art is doing it wisely and pulling it off. Of course when Senna said that he wasn’t actually going for a gap, and one can’t really say that just because you don’t go for a gap you are no longer a racing driver. It might mean you are a wise racing driver, if you determine the gap is not going to be viable enough to use, and you choose self-survival over a big risk.

    2. And closing the gap, even when being legal, is often unwise. But VB is certainly not the wisest of racers.

  9. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want him to receive a penalty. But there is no way that by sticking in the tiniest amount of front wing you can claim your space in the corner. It has been for some time now that for a driver to earn his right to space in the corner he (or she) must be sufficient alongside. I agree there is grey area there, but it is with certainty one can say Ricciardo did not. He stuck his nose in what was not even a gap and it resulted in damage. So it is fully his fault.

    This reads like an excuse to maybe dodge after-the-race-penalty.. He even uses the Senna-gap meme here to perfection…

  10. If we’re going for consistency we should also take the ‘Bottas was the pole sitter’ argument out of the discussion. Applying penalties should be consistent regardless the status of the driver.

  11. Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
    8th November 2021, 16:45

    Still your fault Mr. Ricciardo!! I wouldn’t feel good about any of it considering you fouled up your own race as well. Your lucky that there was a resulting red flag because otherwise the only drivers behind you would have been the two HAAS cars.

    1. red flag

      SC was more like it. VB and DR do not have the clout to trigger a red flag so they can fully repair their car without any loss of time or position.

      1. Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
        9th November 2021, 2:36

        yeah, sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight. thanks for the correction.

  12. I get the impression Bottas was trying to make sure Ham got ahead, and he all but stopped stopped on the racing line to do so. At the same time, he forgot he was in the first turn of an F1 race. Ouch.

    1. should take out Lewis oh wait he is paid not to do that so he let lewis through.

  13. I found it kinda funny how ricciardo sabotaged bottas’ race: first I’ll take you out, then I’ll keep you behind all race! Not purposeful ofc, but see how big effect it had.

  14. Daniel you screwed up. Even watching the same video after the race, yes, you screwed up and ruined the race of several too.
    You know what would have been ‘gentlemanly’, is actually letting the guy go by – the same guy whom you tagged, spun and whose race you screwed up.

  15. I, as an armchair racing expert, disagree with the actual racing driver, and call it a clumsy move. Plus he ruined Bottas’ race two times as Bottas was stuck behind him the whole time as a result of this

  16. So, in Hungary, Bottas locks up, causes a crash, gets a 5-place penalty.

    How is this incident different?

    1. So apparently stewards DO care for the result. They said Bottas was penalized in Hungary for making others DNF. So because nobody DNFd here (just Riccardo ruining someone’s race with his 50/50 “late brake magic” thing) he didn’t get a penalty.
      I have never considered Riccardo as a good late braker. He sends it but many times he destroys the rivals race.

  17. Yeah, initially I thought it was all RIC’s fault and that he had done a BOT at Hungary and lost control and ploughed into a car in front. Having watched a better replay I see that RIC had control and that instead the problem was that a slow BOT tried to take the apex into the first corner which left RIC nowhere to go.
    Any other lap you would penalise RIC, but BOT was going slow to avoid HAM and so shouldn’t try to take the racing line but instead a slightly wider line in case there is a car on the inside that BOT hadn’t noticed.
    Anyway, how the hell did RIC get a pass BOT on the restart? Nobody else managed one…

  18. Racing incident 100%.

Comments are closed.